LeBron James to Announce The Decision on ESPN

LeBron James, the National Basketball Association's most coveted free agent in years, says he'll announce his decision Thursday night.

It's scheduled for 9/8c on an hourlong special the sports network is calling The Decision.

Besides the Cleveland Cavaliers — the team he's played for the last seven years — teams in the running for his services are the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Clippers, all of which he met with last week.

ESPN's Stuart Scott will host The Decision. He'll be joined by the network's pro basketball analysts Michael Wilbon and Jon Barry.Two other highly desired free agents — Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — said Wednesday that they're signing with the Miami Heat. The Heat's signing of Bosh and Wade still leaves open the possibility of James joining them, as long as the three stars are willing to take pay cuts.James has kept mum on his decision and is waiting for his basketball camp in Akron, Ohio, to end before revealing his decision. Meantime, New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul persuaded James to join Twitter Tuesday afternoon while at the camp, but James hasn't used any tweets to hint at where he might end up. (By early Wednesday afternoon, he had 250,000 followers — and counting.) He simply tweeted that people should check lebronjames.com "for updated info on my decision."The intense lobbying aimed at James has even included a pitch from Betty White's character from the new TV Land show Hot in Cleveland. p>